Investing in scientific and medical teaching facilities

The University of Liverpool opened its new £23 million teaching laboratories in 2012.

The Central Teaching Laboratories allow students from different disciplines to work together to learn diagnostic and measurement skills that prepare them for employment. They include £5.6 million worth of state-of-the-art laboratory equipment, designed to support new teaching modules and a variety of degree programmes, such as physics, earth sciences, chemistry and archaeology, and to promote interdisciplinary science.

Built around a central atrium, the facility has seven laboratories and can accommodate 1,000 students, as well as being used for hosting events involving the local community, schools and colleges.

At the University of Leeds, simulation technology now allows dental students to hone their drilling skills on virtual patients. The virtual 3D mouths use haptic technology, similar to that used in hand-held controllers that vibrate in computer games or in-flight simulators for pilot training, so that students receive tactile feedback.

Leeds is the first university in the UK to invest in enough virtual mouths so that every student on its course can regularly experience the virtual world of dentistry.